HockeyCat is back with a vengeance. It is time to sound off on the latest hockey notes and LACROSSE.

Let’s get the conversation going again.

HockeyCat is proud to welcome the Spirit of Hockey as a primary sponsor. The Spirit of Hockey brings a back to basics approach to hockey fundraising with special keepsake calendars that remind us of what the game is all about. Check out their site and see the fundraising options available.

This is a very innovative product that helps organize busy families, raise money for your association and has absolutely no high-fructose corn syrup or caffeine.

Send us an email to become involved.

Raise Funds: Calendars for Hockey Lovers

These innovative calendars are full of unique hockey images and emanate a true spirit of hockey. Hockey lovers everywhere are taking home these calendars as keepsakes and gifts.

Keepsake Qualities

Spirit of Hockey calendars commence in October as this is the beginning of the hockey season in many regions. The timing is absolutely perfect for getting hockey organized. With the coach’s freshly minted schedule in hand, families begin filling in games, practice and tournaments and using their calendars.
The Stats Machine

It’s in action all year long! On each monthly page of the calendar kids will find a weekly counter box for goals, assists, shots and shutouts. Each month they can tally their totals into the monthly totals reporting box. They are tracking the hockey season in action. At the end of the season the Stats Machine Page is where they can report the year’s totals along with personal achievements, season highlights, and tournament victories.

Once the hockey season has come to a close, the calendar is full of recorded stats and great memories. Now you can turn to the team/individual photo page and proudly display this lasting keepsake on your hockey playing kid’s bedroom wall of fame.

This is the magic of how the keepsake occurs and continues to grow year after year.
Daily Household Itinerary

Each month’s page allows plenty of space to record family activities, games, practices and tournaments.

It is a nicely sized calendar, measuring 12 inches wide by 24 inches tall. The Saturday and Sunday cubes are displayed side by side on the right hand side of the calendar, allowing for ease of reference and continuity in recording weekend events.
Interactive Monthly Events

Each month Spirit of Hockey sports a new fun and interactive event. Contests such as Wing Man of the Year, Tyke’s Tales, Hockey Jokes, Family Hockey Christmas Events, and many more soon to be announced. Winners of these events/contests will be announced on the Spirit of Hockey website, monthly newsletter, and celebrated on the following edition of the Spirit of Hockey calendar. All submissions will be available on-line for your reading entertainment. It’s going to be lots of fun! Keep watching!

See a slideshow of the collection.

For the best fundraising option out there visit The Spirit of Hockey

The Durham (NC) Herald Sun reported recently that heat-related middle and high school football deaths spiked in 2006. Scientists are scratching their heads. HockeyCat is not surprised by the statistics.

All of us involved in hockey are aware of the use of stimulants to enhance performance. Sudafed has been a banned substance by many International governing bodies for years. Another very popular stimulant is caffeine.

When I was a kid Mountain Dew had the most caffeine (in the US - Canada has a law against caffeine in non brown sodas or something like that). Now, we have Red Bull, Surge, Vault and the rest of them promising enough caffeine to give you heart palpitations. Add a little sugar, okay a lot of sugar, and you have the perfect recipe for disaster.

Some hockey players are also using this stuff to get a boost, but the problem in sports like Hockey and Football is that this boost could kill you at its worst and is temporary at best. The sugar and caffeine rush will cause you to crash and burn. It will also act as a diuretic, which means you will sweat more, urinate more and ultimately have more trouble keeping hydrated.

A dehydrated player is more prone to making mistakes, running out of gas and add a little caffeine and you can count on some stupid penalties to boot. Some boost.

It will take scientists a few years to find that Energy drinks are killing our kids, but they will. In the meantime, resist the urge to give your kids or yourself a false boost with a so-called energy drink and stick with water, Powerade and Gatorade.

These so-called energy drinks are ticking time bomb that increase risks to youth athletes in all sports.

Read the UNC Press Release Regarding Heat-Related Deaths Here

HockeyCat Rink Information - Carolina Ice Palace - Charleston, SC

Amenities: The Carolina Ice Palace in Charleston, SC is one of the best facilites for hockey families in the Carolinas. It is certainly one of the best facilities that I have ever set foot in. It includes a full-size arcade, excellent viewing areas, party rooms, seating for spectators, about 5,000 square feet of a fully-stocked pro shop and a restaurant with an ABC license. Oh yeah, it also has two spectacular rinks.

Locker Rooms: The 8 player locker rooms in the Carolina Ice Palace have showers in between them and are heated. There is also a separate referee locker room and a women’s locker room.

Seating: The Carolina Ice Palace has by far the best arrangement in the Carolinas. It uses metal bleachers and in its larger rink can handle a decent sized tournament crowd without any major issues.

Ice: The Carolina Ice Palace ice surfaces are in line with the overall facility and were excellently painted and the boards are well-maintained.

Cleanliness: The facilities at the Carolina Ice Palace are well-maintained. There are no off-odors, mildew smells or anything else. In fact, the floors were perfect, the snack bar area was excellent and even the extensive bleachers were gleaming. This facility sets the standard for cleanliness in the Carolinas and while I haven’t been everywhere in the country, I cannot recall any place this nice that calls itself an ice rink. Obviously, General Manager Wayne Stella takes the "Palace" in the name to heart. From its large TVs to immaculate and unique restaurant, there is a sense of pride and attention to detail that distinguishes this facility from the crowd.

Pro Shop: The Carolina Ice Palace Pro Shop is better than most private stores. It rivals some of the stores that I have been to in Canada and the prices are quite reasonable. If you break a composite stick or decide you need a new pair of skates it is a good bet that they will have what you are looking for.

Overall: The Carolina Ice Palace is a five paw facility in every way imaginable. It aspires to be a destination and it succeeds. It is the kind of place where you can feel comfortable dropping your teenagers off on a Friday Night and the second floor offers excellent views of both rinks and the arcade. Bathrooms were clean and well-maintained.

Directions: They are right off the highway tucked into a shopping center with plenty of hotels within a short drive or walking distance.

From
I-26 (East):
Take I-26 East to Charleston (Exit 209 Ashley Phosphate Road.). Turn left off of exit to first traffic light (McDonalds). Turn left on to Ashley Phosphate Road. Go to first traffic light over bridge (Taco Bell). Turn left onto Northwoods Blvd. Go approximately 1/4 mile. The Carolina Ice Palace is on the left.

From
I-26 (West): Take I-26 West Columbia
(Exit 209 Ashley Phosphate Road). Go straight through
light off of the exit onto Northwoods Blvd. Go
approximately 1/4 mile. The Carolina Ice Palace is on the
left.

Leagues : Men’s - A, B and C and 35+

Youth - House, Travel - Charleston Youth Hockey
College - The Citadel
Pro - Carolina Stingrays (ECHL)

Website:  www.CarolinaIcePalace.com

HockeyCat Rating: 5 paws (out of 5)

If you are considering something for summer fun. This is great fun in the house or on the beach. Buy it here and help support HockeyCat.com

Read the rest of this entry »

The Rage Cage Portable Hockey Goal B-200 is as easy to use as it says and it will hold up well to the hardest shooters. Take a look at the goal that folds up small enough to fit in your trunk. This portable hockey goal is perfect for home use, practices and youth games.

The net comes attached with the Rage Cage system and this saves you time and frustration.

The Rage Cage B-200 Portable Hockey Goal is easy to setup up and stores easily in your garage. If you are coach of a Roller Hockey Team, this goal allows you to setup anywhere. Parents of Elite, Travel Hockey Players will love having a true 4×6 cage that can stand up to tough shots and allow your player to practice anytime he/she feels like it with a real goal.

Sure the plastic portable hockey goals are cheaper, but add the setup time and the inferior quality nets and you will be replacing them time and again. The Rage Cage B-200 portable hockey goal is perfect for Parks & Recs, camps and temporary use situations. Why store goals at the rink when you can give them to the coaches and ask them to return them to you or lock Rage Cage B-200 portable hockey goals away in a storage closet?

For a little more than the cost of a replacement net alone, you can have the the Rage Cage B-200 Portable Hockey Goal.

Click Here to Check out the Full Line of Rage Cage Portable Hockey and Lacrosse Goals

Click Here to Go to the HockeyCat Store.

Editors Note: For some reason, this post was deleted - not sure how or why. Well it is back and it looks like Mr. Charns may have been right after all. Even if he couldn’t believe it.

Repost Below:

Here’s my op-ed piece that ran in the N&O on the topic:

Imagine this front-page headline: “DA Clears 43 Duke lacrosse players of gang rape cover-up”. Keep imagining.

A false allegation lasts forever. Exoneration is fleeting and often hidden from view. The falsehood gets front-page news and vivid photos splashed on the television news. Innocence comes inside the newspaper, after the cut line on page 14A, and not at all on TV.

So it was last week with the Duke University lacrosse-stripper-student mom-alleged gang rape scandal in this former tobacco town, a city where I practice law, raise my children, and where my kids and I play one of those so-called “helmet sports”.

Last week, my client and 42 other Duke lacrosse players were cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Durham County District Attorney. It was a backhanded apology for earlier accusations of cover-up and stonewalling that he had made against them.

DA Mike Nifong wrote in a press release: “At the outset of this investigation, I said that it was just as important to remove the cloud of suspicion from the members of the Duke University lacrosse team who were not involved in this assault as it was to identify the actual perpetrators.”

“For that reason, I believe it is important to state publicly today that none of the evidence that we have developed implicates any member of that team other than those three against whom indictments have been returned.”

As welcome as this press release was, it can’t overcome the earlier, repeated, nationally publicized statements accusing the players of “covering up for a bunch of hooligans.”

And what of the Durham Police crime posters pasted around town accusing the guys of covering up a known, not alleged, gang rape and sodomy? The same Durham Police Department who wiretapped its own employees in years past due to a fictitious “call-girl ring” and spent close to a million dollars litigating instead of apologizing has offered only silence.

Neither have the sports pundits apologized after blaming the “helmet sport” gang mentality for the “code of silence” and maligning all who play lacrosse, hockey and football.

The three young men charged will have their day in court, and will clear their names in a public and highly publicized trial. Their 43 teammates, falsely accused without being formally charged with anything, received a one-sentence exoneration buried inside the newspaper.

-Alex Charns, a lawyer whose practice areas include criminal defense and police misconduct law, is author of “

”. He plays C-League hockey at the Triangle Sportsplex.

Buy the Best Portable Hockey and Lacrosse Goals here!!!

As a parent, this is the toughest time of the year. I never have a problem with the regular season. Everything is structured. The coaches do the pushing. I just have to show up. Now, it is the off-season and I have no idea what to do.

The choices are endless and ridiculous. When my son started playing here in NC five years ago there were two choices - Summer Camp and Spring Leagues. If you wanted something more competitive, you chose spring leagues. If you wanted something fun and short, you chose camps. Not anymore.

Everyone has a camp. Everyone has a league. If there is money to be made, they are all involved. What makes hockey a little unusual is that I have never sent my son to a bad camp. I am sure they exist, but I have yet to find one. It may be that we are so far afield that if anyone feels like coming down here must be good, because if they were bad they couldn’t get anyone to their camp. We are also lucky, because we have the Carolina Hurricanes and their camp is one of the best in the business - based on parent feedback - for player and coach involvement. I’d give them a plug, but they are pretty much sold out every year on their own.

So here I am. This year my son has asked to play in the Spring League; is playing lacrosse and playing baseball. He chose this ridiculous schedule. My wife is concerned that he is doing too much. I am running myself ragged and he is having a blast. He seems to like the variety and the extra exercise. He also likes making new friends.

Here is the thing: he chose all of these activities. I guess he’ll have to chose one day, but he is only 10, so why not? When I was a kid - not that long ago, playing multiple sports was what you did. Now, soccer is year round, baseball is spring and fall, hockey is year round, lacrosse is spring and fall and even cheerleading has become a competitive sport with year round competitions.

So how much is too much? I think it comes down to who is making the choices. If your child says: “I want to play …”, then let him/her do it. With so much playstation, nintendo, xBox and everything else should we really be concerned with kids being active?

Why are we so concerned with children being active when their is an obesity problem and kids get shot at malls and their are entire programs devoted to getting kids active? It makes no sense. While I disagree completely with playing sports only to get a scholarship or pro contract, it seems to me that being in shape and having fun should be applauded not scorned.

I am interested in hearing other parents’ experiences. So fill out the comment form and let me know what you think.

The Triangle Youth Hockey Sharks held a Breast Cancer Awareness Event at the Triangle Sportsplex to benefit UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center in memory of Leigh Young - the wife of our past President and long-time community volunteer at Triangle Youth Hockey of North Carolina - who died of Breast Cancer this past year.